Notebook: Spurs’ Neal looks for road out of slump

MINNEAPOLIS — If there’s one souvenir reserve guard Gary Neal hopes to bring back from the Spurs’ latest rodeo road trip, which opens tonight in Minnesota, it is a rediscovered shooting stroke.

Typically used to provide scoring punch off the bench, especially with Manu Ginobili out with injury, Neal struggled with his shot in December and January, hitting 38.1 percent in the two months combined.

In the process, Neal has seen his scoring average — once flirting with career-high levels — dip to 9.8 points per game.

“Sometimes over the course of a season, you’re going to struggle to shoot the ball,” said Neal, who has missed 12 of 16 attempts in the past three games. “What can you do? You just try to continue to take good shots and hopefully, through the course of a season, you’ll be able to shoot a decent percentage.”

A career 43.5-percent shooter in two-plus NBA seasons, with a 40.5-percent success rate from 3-point range, Neal refuses to attribute his shooting slump to the recurring pain in his right calf that has been bothering him off and on all season.

Nor does he believe he is pressing while serving out of position as Tony Parker’s primary backup at point guard.

Neal, 28, remains confident he can rediscover the scoring mojo that has allowed him to post five 20-point games this season, including a season-high 29 in a Dec. 10 victory at Houston.

“I’ve never been one to make an excuse,” Neal said. “Right now, I’m just missing shots. At the end of the day, that’s what it is. I’ll try to stay aggressive and take good shots, and hopefully be able to turn it around.”

One-finger salute: After playing for weeks with his fractured right pinky finger taped to the ring finger, Jackson practiced Monday with only the right pinky taped.

“I got it X-rayed (Monday) morning,” Jackson said. “It’s still broken, but it’s going to be like that for a couple more months.

“They told me I could try one (finger) taped. I still have to tape it for the rest of the season, but they let me try it and it felt good. We’ll see about playing like this, though.”

Business, not pleasure: Recalled from the Austin Toros on Saturday after two games in the Development League, rookie center Aron Baynes said he was eager to partake on his first long road trip with his new team.

Yet the Australian big man, who played four college seasons at Washington State, doesn’t plan to spend the rodeo road trip playing gawking tourist.

“I have a pretty business-like attitude when I’m on the road,” said Baynes, who has played two games with the Spurs since signing Jan. 23. “With this team, I don’t know when I’m going to be called upon. I try to stay as ready as I can.”